Natural Remedies: Insomnia and Trouble Sleeping

Getting enough shut-eye? Most adults need at least 8 hours of sleep every night. If you have insomnia, here are tips for a better night's sleep.

What Is Insomina?

Insomnia is having trouble falling asleep or getting back to sleep—or, waking up too early.

It's natural for people to have trouble sleeping from time to time. Some common reasons are stress, a sick child, eating or drinking too close to bedtime, or certain medications. This is usually nothing to worry about, but it slows your thinking, makes it difficult to pay attention, and makes you feel cranky (which affects others)!

Not getting enough sleep for a long time, however, can cause long-term health problems. For example, it can make problems like diabetes and high blood pressure worse. If you have sleep issues that last most nights for 3 to 4 weeks or more, you need to consult a health professional. You may have a chronic case of insomnia; this issue is more common in females, people with depression, and people older than 60.

Other serious sleep problems include sleep apnea. There are also sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy, that can make you sleep during the day.

Insomnia can become a habit that your body easily adopts if you don't try to put a stop to the cycle.

Tips to Sleep Better

It is normal to take between 10 and 20 minutes to fall asleep. If you're having trouble and this is not a chronic case, here are some common remedies that may work better than counting sheep!

Go to bed and get up at the same time each day. Humans crave structure and rhythm. Help your body find its natural rhythm.

Get up and walk around. If you keep tossing and turning in bed for 20 minutes, try getting up. Take a walk or do something quiet.

Sleep in a dark, quiet room that isn't too hot or cold for you. Many readers suggest that a slightly cooler room is helpful for sleeping at night. A few readers add that the feet can't be too cold, and it helps to warm them in a bath or with socks before bedtime.

Don't face the clock. Try removing clocks from your bedroom. Clock-watching can feed into the pattern of insomnia. If you need an alarm, put one outside your bedroom door.

Work out early. Exercise is a good way to get rid of insomnia. However, exercising 2 to 3 hours right before going to bed will only keep you awake. So plan accordingly.

Wind yourself down. In the 30 minutes before bedtime, wind down by doing something relaxing, such as listening to music. Don't do bills or work right before you go to sleep! Turn off electronic devices, too.

Skip the afternoon nap. Try to not take naps during the day because this can take away your ability to be able to have a sound sleep. If you do nap, don't nap later than 3 P.M.

Avoid caffeine, nicotine, beer, wine, and liquor in the 4 to 6 hours before bedtime.

Don't eat large meals within 2 hours of bedtime.

Milk and turkey can help. Though large meals are not advised, try having a glass of milk an hour before going to sleep. If milk upsets your stomach, eat half of a turkey sandwich. The chemical tryptophan in both milk and turkey causes drowsiness.

Consult your doctor. In some cases, taking medicine together with some changes to your routine can help most people with insomnia. Consult your health professional.

According for folklore: For insomnia, eat tomatoes, tangerines, or oranges.

Snoring

Do you snore? Snoring is caused by vibrating in the throat. Some people can make changes that will stop snoring. These include:

Losing weight

Cutting down on smoking and alcohol

Sleeping on your side instead of on your back

However, if you snore loudly and often and find that you are drowsy during the day, you may have sleep apnea. This is not uncommon, but it is dangerous because your breathing can stop during sleep.

People with sleep apnea tend to be overweight. It is more common among men than women. In many cases, doctors will recommend a device that pushes air through your airway. In some cases, you may need surgery.

By Bill Platt4

By meital

It's not exactly remedies, but I use and acupressure mat or an infrared heating pad when I have trouble sleeping - These work in 5 minutes. (http://www.natural-alternative-therapies.com/ways-to-fall-asleep-fast/)

With some research, you will find many herbal and/or natural products out there on the internet that will help you to relax and/or sleep.
Valerian root is a plant that will help to relax you & allow sleep to come naturally. It doesn't take much to put you in a state of slumber, but too much can cause problems for some who are sensitive. Be careful is all I'm saying.

Never pick anything from the wild unless you are 100% positive as to what it is, as many plants have poisonous parts or have poisonous relatives that look similar.

By Duane M

Get up and walk around. - No that's what caused me to stay awake until 6 AM, then I couldn't get to work, because I couldn't get to sleep staying awake all night long.

Don't face the clock. - Yeah, but you still get up to go to the Kitchen to have a snack. And then I never heard the alarm in the morning.

Work out early. - My job was vigorous enough. I stayed in shape with that job.

Give yourself down time. - Why? Then nothing would get done when you have irregular sleep patterns.

Skip the afternoon nap. - Yeah, I did that one time. I almost killed me and both my daughters while driving in the car.

Milk and turkey can help. - An excuse to eat more and raise your sugar. It can put you comatose when you're a diabetic.

For insomnia, eat tomatoes, tangerines, or oranges. - Which are also high in Sugar content. Eat sparingly if you are a diabetic!

For True insomnia, please ask your Doctor to send you to a "Sleep Disorder Clinic." - I had a Doctor who told me to find another Doctor, "Because he couldn't find out what it was that was Plaguing me." Before I left as his patient... I asked him if he could send me for "A Sleep Disorder Test." He reluctantly set me up with an appointment. To me... I had all of the symptoms. He didn't see it, I was making up all of these excuses he said.

So 2 weeks later I had the "TEST" done.... I was nearly sent over to the E.R. Yes, I did have severe Sleep Apnea. Because you can't FAKE a test like that when you're asleep. I found myself a more competent Doctor 2 weeks after that test. Who treated me like a patient, not a whiner.

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